French Parliament Votes Sarkozy 200 % Pay Rise

Sarkozy said reorganising the funding of his office would make it clearer what the president actually earned.

The French parliament voted on Tuesday to give the president of the republic a pay rise of more than 200 percent -- and pay him as much as his subordinate, the prime minister.

President Nicolas Sarkozy now earns around 6,000 euros ($8,640) a month, far less than his peers in other European countries, but his pay will soon match the 19,000 euros a month earned by Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

As head of state Sarkozy enjoys a wide range of benefits in kind that make it difficult to estimate what he really earns. The parliamentary measure, an amendment to the 2008 budget law, specifies that the president's salary should "exclude any other form of pension, payment, bonus or indemnity". The amendment also approves an overhaul of the funding of the president's office, now paid for from several different budgets, by putting all the spending under one heading.

Sarkozy said reorganising the funding of his office would make it clearer what the president actually earned.

"I want transparency, I want there to be a law that sets the president's salary," he told reporters accompanying him on a visit to Corsica, adding: "It's not up to me to set it."

Some members of the opposition Socialists said the huge pay rise set a bad example at a time when many people in France have been worried about falling purchasing power, but the measure passed through parliament without significant opposition.